Alors que les révoltes qui balaient le monde arabe n’ont jusqu’à présent détrôné que les dictateurs des républiques, la manifestation massive qui a ressemblé des milliers de personnes dimanche au Koweït – qui ressemble tellement aux manifs du Bahreïn – rappelle que ni les pays du Golfe, ni les monarchies ne sont à l’abri du « printemps arabe » !

Morocco plays the ‘king’s club’ card

October 22, 2012 3:52 pm
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/779d4412-1c3f-11e2-a14a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2A2jmCAwz

Bébé Doc a été froidement reçu au Qatar et il en est reparti bredouille, même pas une pièce de flouze ne lui a été offerte par le Cheikh ! Que des promesses bidons !

http://youtu.be/2YVI-WKZUXM

Alors que les révoltes qui balaient le monde arabe n’ont jusqu’à présent détrôné que les dictateurs des républiques, la manifestation massive qui a ressemblé des milliers de personnes dimanche au Koweït – qui ressemble tellement aux manifs du Bahreïn – rappelle que ni les pays du Golfe, ni les monarchies ne sont à l’abri du « printemps arabe » !

Morocco plays the ‘king’s club’ card

October 22, 2012 3:52 pm

By Michael Peel

Morocco’s king arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Monday for the latest leg of a Gulf tour, showing how Arab world revolts have drawn together the region’s monarchs and left poorer countries seeking help from the petrostates.

King Mohammed VI’s five-country trip offers him the prospect of needed investment to help shore up his power, analysts say, while for the Gulf royal families he is a useful example of a leader adapting to regional political change by introducing limited reforms.
More

While the revolts sweeping the Arab world have so far unseated only dictators in republics, the mass opposition street protests in Kuwait late on Sunday were – like the 20-month-old Bahrain uprising – a reminder that neither the Gulf nor its highly-controlling monarchies are immune from unrest.

Morocco and the Gulf states are “interested in each other for different reasons,” said Marina Ottaway, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “King Mohammed has shown it’s possible to take steps that indicate a willingness to move towards a more open political system – but without losing many powers”.

King Mohammed’s Gulf voyage began in Saudi Arabia last week, with his planned itinerary also including Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait. Taieb Fassi Fihri, a counsellor to the monarch, says the visit is focusing on three areas of partnership agreed between Morocco and the Gulf countries – direct budget support for infrastructure and social projects, sovereign wealth fund investment and injections of private capital.

Analysts say possible areas for discussion include the Moroccan government’s imminent planned $1bn bond issue, its shareholding in Air Maroc, and the 53 per cent controlling stakeheld by France’s Vivendi in Maroc Telecom, the country’s largest telecommunications operator.

David Roberts, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said King Mohammed had to push for investment because political reforms that led to the election in November of a government headed by the Islamist Justice and Development party would “not be enough”.
“A vote is a nice thing but it hardly puts bread on the table,” Mr Roberts said. “He will need economic stimulus if he is to improve his position.”

While Morocco has traditionally engaged more heavily with its European neighbours across the Mediterranean than with the Gulf countries, it has recalibrated amid the western financial crisis and tumult in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, which has driven some tourists and investors away from the north African region. Although officials says that Morocco sees itself as a truly international hub and doesn’t plan to press for the possible membership of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council mooted last year, most analysts see the GCC looming ever more significantly in Rabat’s political and economic calculations.

“In Morocco’s case, the importance of GCC support has only increased with the weakness in the eurozone,” said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, research fellow at the London School of Economics. “Both Qatar and Kuwait have made significant investments in Moroccan infrastructure and development projects in the last year, and the king undoubtedly will be seeking more such investment from Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well.”

For the Gulf monarchies, Morocco offers potential profits, a pleasant holiday destination for the region’s elites – and ideas on how to make political changes that fall well short of becoming an emasculated constitutional monarchy. While there are sharp variations in the stability of GCC ruling families, all of them are aware of the ripple effects from revolts elsewhere in the Arab world.

As leaders elsewhere in the Middle East fall or teeter ever closer to the edge, an informal kings’ club like that highlighted by the Moroccan monarch’s tour has symbolic force – and makes political sense all around.

“It’s a win-win partnership,” said Mr Fihri, King Mohammed’s counsellor. “When you see what is happening around us, I think the stability of Morocco is important.”

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/779d4412-1c3f-11e2-a14a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2A2jmCAwz

Aucun sous des 2,5 milliards de dollars promis l’année dernière par le GCC n’a atterri jusqu’à présent dans les caisses du Makhzen !

Accompanying the king on a tour of the Gulf region, Yassir Zenagui said in an interview with Reuters that the trip had not so far resulted in new pledges of aid and that none were expected.

« The aim of the tour is to present projects with concrete budgets and feasibility. We’re coming to work on what was already agreed, to execute what has already been decided by the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), » Zenagui said.

None of the $2.5 billion promised had yet been transferred, but that should change soon.

« We don’t expect it to be this year, Q1 of next year looks more reasonable, » Zenagui said.

Morocco expects first Gulf aid payouts in early 2013

Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:59am EDT

* First part of pledged $2.5 bln expected in Q1 -aide

* Investment in ports discussed with Qatar’s emir

* Moroccan king touring Gulf; due in UAE, Kuwait this week

By Regan Doherty

DOHA, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Morocco expects to receive early next year the first part of $2.5 billion in aid it was promised by wealthy Gulf Arab states, an advisor to King Mohammed said on Monday.

Cementing ties between Arab monarchies at a time of political turmoil, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait last year agreed to disburse that sum to Morocco and the same amount to Jordan.

Accompanying the king on a tour of the Gulf region, Yassir Zenagui said in an interview with Reuters that the trip had not so far resulted in new pledges of aid and that none were expected.

« The aim of the tour is to present projects with concrete budgets and feasibility. We’re coming to work on what was already agreed, to execute what has already been decided by the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), » Zenagui said.

None of the $2.5 billion promised had yet been transferred, but that should change soon.

« We don’t expect it to be this year, Q1 of next year looks more reasonable, » Zenagui said.

Foreign aid is important to Morocco, whose $90-billion economy is heavily exposed to the debt-scarred euro zone through trade, tourism revenues and migrant remittances.

The country’s leadership is also anxious to avoid a drop in living standards, having largely been spared the political unrest that has toppled regimes in other parts of North Africa and the Middle East.

In August, the International Monetary Fund approved a $6.2 billion precautionary line of credit for the North African country, to be treated as « insurance » in case economic conditions deteriorated further.

INVESTMENT IN TOURISM

King Mohammed visited Saudi Arabia and Jordan before travelling to Qatar. He will visit the UAE on Tuesday and Kuwait on Wednesday, a spokesman said.

Infrastructure, health care, education, housing and agricultural investments are on the trip’s agenda, Zenagui said.

On Sunday the king and Qatar’s Emir discussed industrial ports in the Moroccan cities of Nador and Safi that could be used to export oil and gas, he said.

Last year Qatari fund Qatar Holding, the Kuwait Investment Authority’s Al Ajial Investments and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Aabar agreed to inject 20.8 billion dirhams ($2.5 billion) into a newly created vehicle called Wessal Capital that would focus on tourism development in Morocco.

Zenagui said he expected Saudi Arabia to shortly join the vehicle, which would run separately from the aid programme of the same value.

« We will have a structure with access to liquidity at reasonable rates in international markets. The aim is to create something open to any financial structuring, including a public offering. »

Morocco hopes Gulf institutional investors will buy into its planned sale of a $1 billion-plus sovereign bond, which has been delayed to the end of November from October.

Zenagui did not say whether the issue had been discussed during the king’s tour.

King Mohammed has kept his distance from Gulf Arab monarchies since his coronation in 1999, making far fewer official visits to the region than his late father King Hassan.

Some of the Gulf’s most influential rulers, including Saudi King Abdullah, regularly visit Morocco but mostly for medical or other private reasons. However, concern over the spread of Arab Spring revolts has brought Arab monarchies closer to each other. (Editing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by John Stonestreet)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/morocco-gulf-king-idUSL5E8LMBEI20121022

Les sionistes d,un cote et les egorgeurs de leurs peuples comme kaddafou, Assad, boutef et cie sont de l,autre cote’.

http://www.latribune.fr/getCrop.php?ID=5300680&ext=jpg&W=770&H=380&ptr=0

Le siège de Maroc Télécom, l’opérateur historique du pays, filiale de Vivendi. DR

Delphine Cuny | 22/10/2012, 09:19 – 257 mots

L’opérateur qatari aurait manifesté de l’intérêt pour l’opérateur historique marocain, dont Vivendi détient 53%, selon le «Financial Times». L’émirati Etisalat serait aussi sur les rangs.

L’opérateur télécoms Qtel, contrôlé par l’Etat du Qatar, a exprimé de l’intérêt pour les 53% de Vivendi dans Maroc Télécom. Mais il serait en compétition avec Etisalat, son rival émirati, selon le «Financial Times» ce lundi. Vivendi, en pleine revue stratégique, est conseillé par les banques Lazard et Crédit Agricole sur ce dossier. L’opérateur télécoms historique marocain est le deuxième contributeur aux profits de Vivendi, derrière SFR, mais fait face à un net durcissement de la concurrence sur son marché, où les prix ont baissé de plus de 25% l’an dernier. Le «FT» ne mentionne aucun prix. Maroc Télécom, dont l’action gagne 6% ce lundi matin à la Bourse de Paris, vaut 7,9 milliards d’euros au cours actuel, ce qui valorise la participation de Vivendi à plus de 4 milliards (hors prime de contrôle).

L’Etat marocain, actionnaire clé

Mais la géopolitique devrait s’inviter dans le dossier puisque l’Etat marocain détient encore 30% du capital de l’entreprise, un des premiers employeurs du pays et la première capitalisation de la Bourse de Casablanca. Un actionnaire-clé qui va forcément peser sur la décision. Les analystes sont tous favorables à une cession de Maroc Télécom, un actif qu’ils considèrent risqué du point de vue géopolitique, du fait de l’instabilité des pays arabes, et de sa trop grande exposition au seul marché marocain, malgré ses diversifications dans plusieurs pays africains. Vivendi envisage également une cession de sa pépite brésilienne GVT, opérateur alternatif en forte croissance, qui intéresserait Telefonica et DirecTV. Il examine également ses options pour SFR, dont un rapprochement avec Numericable.

http://www.latribune.fr/technos-medias/telecoms/20121022trib000726335/vivendi-maroc-telecom-interesserait-le-qatari-qtel-.html